It's worse than that. Every time there's a natural disaster, the DS shows up to help "clean-up". If the parents and kids get separated, the kids are at risk. The chaos and confusion means people dying is expected. These people are evil beyond belief.
Did parents die along the way? These people didn't really walk so if they had parents at the start someone killed them.
Or the parents sold their kids.
Sadly, this is more likely.
It's worse than that. Every time there's a natural disaster, the DS shows up to help "clean-up". If the parents and kids get separated, the kids are at risk. The chaos and confusion means people dying is expected. These people are evil beyond belief.